Let's Try This One More Time
by pepperlandgrl
Summary: The Ghostbusters are back once more to get rid of the new surge of ghosts in the city. But of course, it's never that simple for them, is it? Nope. Never. So, with a new member, the Ghostbusters try to figure out who or what grand force is causing this new surge of activity. Before it all goes to hell. Based on the video game.
1. New Member, New Problems

**Hey everyone! I'm back with another story! This is based on the video game. I honestly love the script for the game and I am so excited to write a story for it with Juliet. Hope every one likes this and please, please, please leave a review. It keeps me motivated and lets me know what you all like and what you don't like so I can improve. Thanks so much for the support and here we go!**

* * *

Juliet shot a proton stream at the three ring red target in the middle of the junkyard. Target practice was starting to become a regular thing for her. The others didn't really see a need for it. Well mainly Peter. The others were just busy. But still. She fired again and hit the second circle. She sighed and wiped a hand across her forehead.

Her attention shifted when she heard the gravel crunch behind her. The Ecto-1A drove up to her and stopped a couple feet away. Ray stepped out of the car and she smiled.

"Peter said you would be here." he said.

"Yeah well this is the only place I can get some practice in and not cause damage that wasn't wanted." she replied and he chuckled.

"I guess you're right." he took off his sunglasses and dark blue flannel shirt he on over a black t-shirt.

"Let me try."

She tried not to stare at him but she brushed that thought away. He's her boyfriend now. She had all the right to stare. She handed him her pack and he strapped it on.

"So I gotta aim for the little circle in the middle right?" he asked, a small grin on his face. "Because so far, that seems to be the only part you haven't hit."

Juliet glared at him. "Yes, Raymond. Hit the little circle in the middle."

He laughed but quickly shifted into his "serious" mode and aimed at the target. He fired once and his shoulders slumped when he saw he only managed to scrape the top of the third circle.

"You were saying?" Juliet smiled smugly and put her hands on her hips.

"Fine, fine. It's not as easy as I thought." he said with a roll of his eyes and a frown.

Juliet grinned. "You can try again if you want."

"I will." he said and he grit his teeth. He let out a small breath as he aimed and fired a quick proton stream. He shouted triumphantly when he saw he hit the center perfectly.

"H-How? I've been practicing all week and I haven't been able to hit it!" Juliet whined and Ray laughed.

"Well, what can I say? I'm just that good."

Right when he said that, he ducked at the stone Juliet threw at this head. He kept laughing even when she glared at him.

"Okay, okay. Look, I'll help you."

Juliet stared at him with her frown still set on her face but gave in after a few seconds.

"Fine."

"Okay, come here."

Ray motioned for her to come closer and she did, taking the pack from him and strapping it on. He put his arms around her and she stiffened.

"Relax, I'm not gonna hurt you or anything." he said with a soft chuckle that made a shiver run down her back.

"You're doing this to distract me." she said, her voice wavering a bit, clearly showing she was flustered. He smiled.

"I'm not. Just focus on this." he took her hands which were gripping the patrona wand and raised them up. "Okay, take a deep breath and when you're ready, release it slowly."

She nodded and squinted at the target. She took a deep breath and released it as she fired. She shut off her wand and grinned when she saw she fired in the same spot Ray had.

"I did it!" she exclaimed as she jumped up and down.

"Okay, okay, don't drop the pack." Ray laughed as he said it.

Juliet smiled and she grabbed him, pulling him into a kiss.

He gladly reciprocated and wrapped his arms around her. The kiss was short but sweet. They separated and Ray smiled at her.

"I love you." he said and her eyes widened.

"You l-l-love me?" she stuttered and he nodded, finding her reaction funny but cute at the same time.

"Yeah. Is that bad?" he asked and she rapidly shook her head

"No, no, no. That's g-great." she stuttered a bit but managed to calm herself down. He really liked surprising her. She both loved and hated it. Now she probably looked like an idiot. But at least he finally said it. She had wanted to hear that from him for so long.

"I love you too." she said once she got her composure and he smiled.

"Okay. Great." he said simply and she laughed, making him laugh. Target practice could be finished later.

* * *

Peter sighed as he picked up the application on his desk and skimmed over it. He love the idea of getting more people into the business but it was mainly to _get out_ of doing work, not getting more of it. He looked over the sheet of paper with a bored expression. After reading 20 already, they were all starting to sound like the same person. No one was interesting. At least interesting in his standards.

It was 1991 and about two years had passed since the whole Vigo event happened. They were given official government contracts stating that they worked for the city now which helped a lot with paying for damages because now instead of it coming out of their pockets, it came out of the city's. They even got breaks for holidays now too. If you had a haunting or possession on say, Easter, it wasn't their problem until after the break.

But because of this government contract, they had a lot more paperwork to fill out. Most of the time, either Juliet or Egon would fill it out but with Winston back in school, they were both needed for jobs and calls so another hand was definitely wanted. And they left Peter to figure out who got picked.

He let out another sigh and just closed his eyes and randomly picked out a paper. It probably wasn't the most responsible decision but hey, when has he ever cared about being 'responsible'?

At that moment, the others came back from one of the calls they had gotten today.

"Well, I picked someone out. Hopefully this one lasts longer than a day." He said as the others put away their packs in their lockers.

"Yeah I hope so." Juliet replied. "I miss having Winston's help. I mean, I'm happy he's doing so well but still."

Ray walked over to Peter and took the paper from him. "He seems qualified enough. Took some engineering classes and physics too. That's more than some of the other people have done."

Egon nodded. "I do need someone to test out the new pack we just finished."

"Are we gonna call him today then?" Juliet asked and Ray shrugged.

"Why not. The sooner we can start training, the better."

"Training?" Peter got up from his desk and walked over to them. "How much would that cost us? I mean, we never had training and we turned out just fine."

Juliet rolled her eyes. "Your definition of fine does not equal the city's definition."

"I'll give him a call right now. See if he can come in today." Ray said with a chuckle and walked over to the phone. He handed the paperwork for the completed job they just did to Janine who made a face and added it to the stack they had growing.

"We really need to get to that." Juliet said, glaring at the stack of paperwork they had and Egon glanced at it and winced. He loved hands on work but paperwork was not his thing.

"I know. You need to find some time to help Janine with that."

"Yeah, I - wait what?" she turned to him and he laughed.

Ray hung up the phone and looked over to Juliet and Egon. he saw her hitting him lightly on the shoulder while he laughed at something. Ray smiled.

"So I talked to the guy. He's coming over just a bit later." Ray said as he walked over to them. Juliet turned to him and smiled brilliantly at him, her eyes twinkling.

Ray felt his heartbeat speed up at the sight and he resisted the want to grab her and kiss her.

"Great!" Juliet replied. "Can't wait to meet him." she kissed his cheek and walked up stairs.

"I'll go get the new pack ready. I'll have him test it out once he gets here." Egon said and cleared his throat when he saw Ray only nodded, still staring after Juliet, a dopey smile on his face.

Ray blinked and turned to Egon. "What? Sorry."

Egon rolled his eyes. He started up the stairs and Ray called after him

"What?" Ray asked. "What?"

* * *

A few hours later, Juliet sat with Janine at her desk, chatting and casually filling out the many sheets of paperwork when a man walked into the firehouse, looking around, a confused look on his face.

Juliet looked up and got off from her seat on the desk.

"Hi, how can I help you."

"I'm here about the position for the Ghostbusters." he said, a bit timid.

"Oh! Right!" Juliet smiled and extended a hand. "I'm Juliet Barlow."

"Hi. Brian." he said and shook her hand. "You're a ghostbuster too, right? I've seen you."

"Yeah, I am." she said with a smile.

"You're very pretty." he said and then his eyes widened. "Uh I mean, uh, sorry. That was inappropriate. I shouldn't have said that."

Juliet laughed. "It's fine. When you work with Venkman for a while, who you'll meet in a minute, you'll see that wasn't as inappropriate as you'd think."

"Oh uh okay." he replied.

They walked over to Janine and Brian shook her hand.

"Janine, this is Brian. He's here about the position."

"Oh great. Hopefully you manage to stick around longer than the others."

"Um, others?"

Juliet coughed. "Uh ignore that. Let's go upstairs. I'll introduce you to the rest of the team."

They walked up the stairs and found the other three there. Egon was strapping on the new proton pack onto Ray while Peter watched, semi-bored.

"Hey guys, look who I have with me." Juliet announced and the others looked over.

Ray grinned. "Hey! It's the new cadet. Welcome aboard!"

Egon simply nodded at him and then went back to adjusting the pack.

"This might be a little dangerous."

"Great." Ray scoffed. "Danger is our life."

Brian leaned over to Juliet. "Are they always doing stuff like this?"

"Yeah. It's hard keeping them alive." she sighed.

"We'll start at fifty-percent capacity. That should keep any burning or tissue damage to a minimum." Egon said and Ray nodded, looking perfectly calm.

"Wait, what? Hold on-" Juliet stepped forward and Peter spoke up to.

"Hey, if you're gonna burn any tissue, do it to the new kid." Peter muttered. Brian frowned.

"Yeah, can we maybe not use Ray? I don't want my boyfriend to get burned." Juliet added.

Peter continued. "Besides, our mortgage is in his name."

Juliet glared at him and he grinned at her.

Ray shrugs. "I guess he's right." he looks over to the rookie. "What's your name again, kid?"

Brian went to respond but Peter cut in.

"No names, Ray. I don't want to get too attached to this kid. You know, just in case." he smirked. "You remember what happened to the last guy."

"Very funny Peter." Ray said dryly. He slipped off the pack and handed it back to Egon.

"Alright cadet, come on." Egon nodded at the new guy and he looked over to Juliet.

"It's fine. I'll make sure nothing bad happens." she said assuredly

He took a breath and walked over to Egon and Ray and let them strap on the pack onto him.

Ray fiddled with it a bit, making the rookie more and more nervous but he finally finished and stepped back.

"He's tuned and ready to go."

"You may feel a little tingle." Egon warned him and the rookie stiffened. Egon didn't notice the nervous look on the rookie's face and kept talking. "We've perfected an extensive and rigorous training regimen that will teach all your equipment's basic functions."

Ray nodded. "It takes some time to achieve the skill and accuracy we have but it's definitely worth the effort."

Juliet leaned over to Peter and muttered, "Wait, we have skill and accuracy?" making him laugh.

At that moment, a strong energy force moved through the firehouse, getting the attention of everyone there.

They all stood in place, looking around at each other in confusion.

Egon fixes his glasses and looks at the others. "Was that us?"

"I don't think so." Ray said but he sounded unsure.

"Ray?" both Peter and Juliet asked at the same time.

Ray cleared his throat and spoke again. "It had to be some sort of psi energy pulse. Substantial too. A significant collected and centralized necromantic convulsion level seven or more."

Egon grabs his PKE meter as Janine rushes up the stairs to where they are.

"Agreed." Egon moves the meter around him, the machine doing loud and fast beeps. "We need EMF measurement checks now."

"I know the answer," Janine said, finally speaking up. "But I'm gonna ask anyway… is a level seven, uh, whatever… bad? Or very bad?"

"Well on a scale from one to ten," Egon responds. "I would say…"

Peter cut in, a playful tone in his voice. "Let me guess. It's a seven."

"Let's just say we're about to get real busy." Ray said, hiding a small amount of annoyance.

Peter notices though and grins. "And that is not the _fun_ kind of getting busy,"

Ray glared at him and Peter held back a laugh. "Is it, Ray?"

Right before Ray was about to respond to Peter's innuendo, Slimer came flying up the stairs and flew around the room.

"Oh shit." Juliet swore and ducked, wanting to avoid getting slimed again. "That slime ball escaped again."

"No, wait, come back." Peter said, his voice dripping in sarcasm.

"Let's move!" Ray said as he quickly grabbed a proton pack and followed Slimer down the stairs, Egon close behind him.

Peter and Juliet exchanged a glance but quickly followed them, the rookie in tow.

They get to the ground floor and Peter stops.

"I'm just gonna wait here." he says. "I remember the last time we had to deal with that spud. I'm not risking getting slimed."

The rookie stood at the top of the stairs heading to the basement and looked confused.

"It's fine. Just follow Ray and Egon downstairs." Juliet said. She grabbed a broom and shoved another into Peter. "We'll be up here cleaning up the broken glass. Right, Peter?" she said

Peter glared at her and sighed. "Yeah I guess."

Brian gives her a nod and follows the other two downstairs.

Juliet and Peter go over to Slimer's original holding case and start sweeping up the broken glass on the floor.

"I knew keeping that thing was a stupid idea." Peter grumbles and Juliet chuckled.

"Well, too late to protest now." she said.

They cleaned in silence for a while. Peter kept shooting glances at Juliet and his mind kept drifting over to the secret he was keeping for Ray. It was so hard not to tell her and talk about it. Part of him just wanted to talk about it because he was a natural born gossip but the other part wanted to be sure she wouldn't break his best friend's heart. He knew that was very unlikely, it was very obvious how much she cared about him and the fact that she had liked him long before they got together makes it more obvious that she was most likely going to say yes. But still. In the business they were in, marriage wasn't really the best thing to do.

He knew his mind was going to go back to _her_ but he shook his head. He needed a distraction.

"So," he started and Juliet looked over to him. "What do you think of the new guy?"

"He's sweet." Juliet said with a smile. "He reminds me a bit of Ray, back when he was in high school. Very awkward and shy. But he seems to be doing okay handling everything. Especially with this going on."

Peter went to respond but the other three came running up the stairs and Juliet and Peter dropped their brooms.

"Well? Did you catch him?" Juliet asked.

"Yup!" Brian raised his first trap proudly.

"That's great!" Juliet grinned at him and Egon cleared his throat.

"Yes well, he did catch his first ghost but Slimer is still out."

"So wait, who's that?" Peter pointed at the trap the rookie was holding up.

"We're not sure." Ray said. "We accidentally hit the containment unit which released another ghost so that's the one the kid caught. Slimer escaped though so we gotta head out to go find him."

"Oh great." Peter groaned.

"Where are we going then?" Juliet asked with a sigh and they all walked over to the Ecto-1b.

"The Sedgewick Hotel. It's the first place that little spud will go." Ray answered.

Egon nodded. "Right. Back to its initial manifestation point."

"They've got a real good buffet." Juliet joked as she got into the car and Peter followed her.

"It's a great one. Oh, when Winston returns from the opera, extend an invitation to join us at our table at the Sedgewick."

Peter turned to the rookie. "You're up buddy! Training will be on the job tonight."

Brian rolled his eyes. He was starting to see why they called Dr. Venkman "the mouth" of the Ghostbusters. He never stopped talking.

"Try not to destroy too many Manhattan landmarks." Peter said as the rookie got into the car. "That's our job."

The car sped out of the firehouse and went straight to the Sedgewick Hotel.


	2. Helluva Lot of Déjà Vu

**Hello all! I didn't abandon this story. Just been busy but with this whole virus going on, I have a lot more free time at home. So here is chapter two. Please leave a review. It helps a lot in keeping motivated and lets me know people are actually reading this. Till the next chapter! Stay safe out there!**

* * *

The car ride to the Sedgewick Hotel was an interesting one to say the least. Brian kept fiddling around with the strap of the new pack he was handed by Ray and shooting nervous glances at Juliet every time the car made a particularly tight turn. Juliet looked unfazed at that and Peter continued to give the kid a judgmental look as he leaned forwards to talk to Ray who was in the driver's seat.

"Hey, uh," he said to Ray, who only glanced his way for a second. "How come this mump gets all the new stuff?"

Egon rolled his eyes and turned to Peter. "He's our new 'Experimental Equipment Technician'."

"He gets a cool title too?" Peter said with a frown.

Ray sighs. "It means he gets to carry around a bunch of untested, extremely dangerous hardware that if not handled correctly, could blow him somewhere into New Jersey."

Peter nodded slowly. "Oh. So this knucklehead lugs around our very dangerous prototype hardware that could potentially blow us into New Jersey?"

He sat back in his seat and looked over at the kid, who was now extremely pale and sweaty. Juliet glared at Peter for saying all of that very loudly but he only smirked and gave Brian a hard pat on the back that made him flinch.

"Thanks! Keep the title, kid. It'll work hard for you."

"You are a real piece of work, you know that, Venkman?" Juliet said and Peter only shrugged and gave her a grin.

"So I've been told."

They finally arrived at the hotel and the minute they stepped past the front doors, the manager from the first time they were there came running up to them. Slimer wasted no time at all in getting noticed again.

"That disgusting green blob is up on the 12th floor again, wreaking havoc! I demand a refund right now!" He fumed and Peter looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Sir," he started. "If you check the fine print on our invoice."

"Invoices." Ray adds under a fake cough.

Peter smiles. "Right, invoices… you'll see that your warranty on re-haunting expired some time ago. You should've taken the extended service agreement."

The manager looks at him for a split second wondering if he's joking but just shakes his head and sighs. "Fine, fine. Just get rid of it!" he says and walks away, still shaking his head.

Peter and Ray share a grin but their little win is cut short when Egon pulls out his PKE reader.

"I'm getting some interesting PKE spikes here." he said and he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Disturbances don't seem to be exclusive to the 12th floor. I'd like the chance to look around the building a little more."

Ray ran a hand through his hair. "Alright, good. Dig up what you can. Julie, stay and help Spengs. That little greenie shouldn't cause us too much trouble."

Not wanting to get slimed again, Juliet quickly agrees. "No problem."

"Great. Rookie, you come with us." Ray jerks his head towards the elevator where Peter was already waiting.

Brian stiffens but follows him anyways.

"Brave little guy, isn't he?" Juliet says with a smile.

Ray chuckles. "I guess so. He'll get used to it though."

Juliet walks over to him and kisses his cheek. "Be safe."

He smiles, blushing slightly. "Of course. You too."

She returns the smile and goes to catch up with Egon. Ray sighs, reaching into his pocket, feeling the small box he recently started to constantly keep there. He shook his head and walked over to the rookie and Peter.

After a few minutes, the elevator doors open and a woman emerges from it. Peter perks up at this, which earns an eye roll from Ray.

"Well, hello." he says slyly and with an annoying amount of confidence. "You're perfectly safe now, Miss. The Ghostbusters are here."

The woman looks at him and frowns at him. "Back off, loser. Never gonna happen."

She walks off and Ray chuckles at Peter's rejection. Brian only looks at Peter, a confused yet slightly amused look on his face.

Peter shrugs, forcing a small laugh. "Haha. That approach rarely works with me. I'll show you why later."

They step into the elevator and Peter hits the 12 button. The doors close and Ray turns to look at Brian, who gives him a nervous look.

"Alright ace, get ready." he says to him and Brian musters a small smile, nodding to him.

"Dr. Stantz," Peter says with a smirk. "If you'd do the honors?"

Ray turns to Peter and grins. "Proud to, Dr. Venkman." he turns on his proton pack.

Peter looks over at Brian with a small look of annoyance. "Part of our settlement with the city: proton packs must remain off in heavily populated public areas." he finished with a little wave of his hand and a roll of his eyes.

Ray nods and gives the rookie a sheepish look. "And in close quarters." he motions to the elevator. The doors open just then and they step out.

Ray continues. "It minimizes the city's liabilities and satisfies the restraining order the maid here had put on us."

Peter sighs. "World we live in today. You shoot a proton stream of highly charged particles at someone… they get all sue-happy."

At that moment, a porter with his cart rounds the corner and Peter stiffens.

"It's him!" he opens fire at the luggage on the cart and the porter gives a small yelp before booking down the hall.

The trio stare at the damage Peter did and he gives Ray a sheepish grin when he sighs.

"Nice. Now we got another plaintiff." Ray mutters with a frown.

Peter's shoulders slump. "Aw, come on, Ray! I didn't want to end up like Juliet with a face full of slime. That little bastard always seems to go after me or her when he escapes. He doesn't even know me well enough to hate me."

Before Ray could respond, the luggage on the busted cart starts flying at them and the three of them immediately move out of the way.

They stick to the walls in order to avoid getting hit and Ray looks around the corner. He spots Slimer and his face goes tense.

"Alright… showtime." he turns to Peter and Brian. "We wear him out, then we capture him." he nods over to the rookie. "That's what your proton stream is for. Just give it your best shot at aiming and fire."

Brian nods and takes a deep breath. He turns the corner and aims right for Slimer, firing his proton stream. He misses and Slimer runs down the hall, startled.

"Okay, you've got him on the run!" Ray grins, patting Brian on the back. "C'mon, let's go, Peter!"

Peter takes a step back and raises his hands in defense. "Nah, I've seen this one already. Know how it ends. You two have fun though. I'll cover the elevators and escort any ladies safely to their rooms."

Ray rolls his eyes but nods. "Yeah, okay. Rookie, with me."

Brian nods at him and follows Ray down the hall. Ray takes out a second pair of goggles and hands them to Brian.

"So these are linked directly to your active PKE meter." He said to him as he pointed to the reader in Brian's hand. He nods and puts them on his head while Ray continues to talk.

"Your meter there will flash and buzz when it detects a potential signal. The paragoggles are mainly for tracking so we tend to use both together during jobs like this one."

With how much information he was getting, Brian wished he could have been trained in a less stressful environment but he didn't have time to complain so he kept his mouth shut and tried to get as much info as he could.

After Ray had explained how to use everything and what all the little flashes and buzzes meant, they walked in silence for a while, the sounds of their equipment filling the quiet atmosphere.

Brian glanced over at Ray and cleared his throat. "So… are you and Miss Barlow together?"

Ray froze and lifted his goggles from his eyes. "Uh, why do you ask?"

"Well, uh, I mean, I saw how she kissed you before she went with Dr. Spengler. I was just wondering. I didn't want to assume anything." he said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Oh. Right. Uh, yeah we are." Ray said, his face a bit red. "Together, I mean."

"How long?" Brian asks as he collects another sample. Ray is quiet for a second and Brian starts to retract his question.

"You don't have to answer! I don't mean to be rude. I know this is personal stuff. I'm sorry."

"No, it's fine, kid." Ray assures with a small chuckle. "Uh, we should be coming up to about one and a half years? I think? I mean, I've known her since middle school so it feels like longer."

"Oh. Wow." Brian simply says which makes Ray laugh a bit.

"Alright, kid." Ray rounds a corner, Brian following right behind him. "My turn. How come you applied for this job?

"Uh well…" Brian pauses for a minute and then continues. "Well I just got out of college and, I don't know, I figured this would be an interesting job." He looks down at his PKE meter, checking the readings.

"I'd seen all the attention you guys got on the news and press. That's not really my thing. You know, being in the spotlight. But, in all honesty, I thought that if this didn't work out, any job would be easy to handle after doing this."

Ray lets out a laugh at that. Brian feels the tension in his shoulders lessen at this and he lets out a breath.

"Well you're definitely not wrong about that part." Ray says with a grin. "But once you do this, no other job is as exciting. At least that's my opinion. Plus, you seem to be doing alright so far."

Brian lets himself smile at this. They keep moving down the halls and before another conversation can start up, they see a set of vandalized vending machines.

"Whoa!" Ray says with a grin. "He's definitely been here."

Brian watched as he picked a broken piece from the machine covered in slime and put it into a small bag. Ray noticed his staring and chuckled.

"We get paid extra for everything we collect. You know, stuff that gets wrecked and contaminated." He nods to the bag in his hand. "We roll it back into Research and Development and the extra funds let us experiment with new equipment and offensive technologies."

Brian nods and sighs in defeat. "Which I assume I have to test first."

"Exactly." he said with a grin.

Ray's radio buzzes to life and Peter's voice comes out of it.

"Ray! I don't feel so good!"

"Shit." Ray mutters. "Peter, come in! You okay?"

When no one responded, Ray frowned and put his radio away.

"Come on, something must have happened to him."

They bolt it down the hallway and they eventually find Peter. He lay on the ground, covered in green slime.

"You got slimed!" Ray said at the sight and Peter glared at him. Brian reached out a hand to help him up and Peter accepted the offer.

"How did this even happen?" he asks himself in disgust, trying to get as much slime he could off of him. "I was covering the elevators."

"Oh Juliet is not gonna let you live this down when she sees you." Ray said with a snicker.

Peter glared at him. "I'm gonna get that little bastard. It's payback time."

They suddenly hear Egon's voice over Ray's radio.

"You guys need to get down here immediately. Our live-in science experiment is tearing apart the lobby, and he's not alone."

Ray sends a look to Peter, who only shrugged at him.

"More ghosts? But we gave this hotel a clean bill of health seven years ago?" Ray said and Egon replied dryly.

"New people die everyday."

"Well that's morbid." Brian mumbled as he pressed the button for the elevator.

Once the elevator doors open, the trio step in. After a few minutes, the elevator shakes and stops.

"Alright, Slimer! You've had your fun! The elevator's off-limits!" Ray yelled. The elevator still didn't move. He reached for his radio and turned it on.

"Uh, Egon, come in. I think we're stuck in the elevator. We need some help!" he said, raising his voice at the end.

Peter gave Ray an annoyed look. "Think we're stuck? Well, let's see…" He leaned down and started pushing random buttons. "Think we're stuck, think we're stuck, think we're stuck…" he stood back up and looked at the others.

Ray rolled his eyes. Peter could be so dramatic.

"Ray, you guys uh… good with officially stuck in the elevator? Show of hands…" Peter continued and Brian raised his hand slowly.

The elevator shook and they froze. Ray raised his patrona wand up and aimed towards the doors.

"Here it comes…"

"Kill it, Ray." Peter said, taking a step back away from the doors.

The doors opened and Egon's face popped into view. "Need a hand?" he asked with a smile.

Ray lowered his blaster and Peter sighed, turning to him.

"You always fail me, Ray. Don't you?"

Ray shrugs, stepping out of the elevator. Peter followed, Brian close behind.

"So, what's the damage?" Peter asks and Egon nudges his head towards the lobby. Peter and Ray gape at the lobby, now filled with multiple bellhop ghosts along with Slimer. They see Juliet blasting at one of the ghosts, catching it in her stream.

Ray grins. "That's my girl!" he runs over to her and throws down a trap, opening it and sealing the ghost inside once Juliet got it within range.

"Thanks." Juliet grins, slightly out of breath. They smile at each other for a second until Peter comes over and hits Ray at the back of his head.

"Alright lover boy, you can flirt later. We're busy."

Ray stuttered at him, his face red. Juliet laughed and went back to blasting at the many ghosts flying around.

The group got right to work, each switching from blasting to throwing down traps. They kept this system up until there was only one left. Brian shot out a stream and caught it immediately. He froze for a bit, shocked he got it on the first try.

He shook his head and struggled holding it in his stream. Ray shot out his own proton stream and nodded over to Brian, who gave him a grateful smile.

Peter sighed. "He's a New York bellhop! Just tip him, will ya?"

"Peter, shut up." Juliet said with a laugh as she threw down a trap. She opened up the trap and in a flash, the last ghost was caught.

"Guess that convulsive PK shock wave really stirred the nest." Ray muttered, picking up the trap.

"Man, this lobby is so wrecked." Brian said and rubbed the back of his neck.

Peter looked around and frowned. "Can we please call Winston and tell him his night off has officially ended?"

More ghosts popped up right after he spoke and the five of them readied their blasters. The ghosts flew around the room for a second before flying out of the lobby in different directions.

Ray grit his teeth. "Shit, they've split up."

"Ray, follow me. The others are floating upstairs." Egon said and Ray nodded, not waiting for him and running over to the stairs. Egon turned to the others. "Venkman, Juliet, you guys pull our friend Slimer into a trap as fast as you can. There's a massive bulge in these spikes indicating that this isn't just some routine cleaning job."

Juliet and Brian nodded while Peter frowned and rolled his eyes. Egon leaves to follow Ray and Peter starts to head in the direction that Slimer went.

"He gets so bossy when he hasn't had his nap." Peter muttered under his breath.

Juliet chuckled. "Leave him alone, will ya? Besides, I think I know where that little spud went." she points over to the sign for the Alhambra Ballroom. Peter smirked.

"Oh yeah, no way he'd pass that up. I can smell the food from out here."

Before they can go in though, the manager stops them, stepping in front of them.

"Oh no, absolutely not! You can't go in, the Rodriguez Bar Mitzvah is set to start in half an hour!" he said and Peter raised an eyebrow.

"I'll bet the beef brisket is today's special." he said, glancing over to the two.

The manager glared at him. "You've done quite enough already. I'm sure the… thing will just go away…"

They hear crashing and glass shattering followed by laughter from inside the ballroom and the three of them look back at the manager.

He stands his ground. "I… I'm willing to risk it. You're not going in there!"

Peter claps his hands together. "Well! That's all we needed to hear. Alright, we're out. Coffee time, everyone! Service has been declined beyond this point."

He walks away from the ballroom and Brian looks at him and back at Juliet.

"So now what?" he asks and Juliet looks back at him.

"We have other ways." she assures him with a grin.

They hear Egon's voice buzz out of Peter's radio.

"Sounds like the Alhambra's off limits."

Juliet can hear the smile in his voice and she chuckles. She reaches for her own radio and responds.

"Yeah but I doubt Venkman here is gonna let it go." She sends Peter a smirk as she walks past him. "He did get slimed after all."

Peter glares at her and she laughs. The radio with Egon's voice again.

"Be careful, Peter. Remember the Ellis Island incident?"

Peter shuts off his radio right after that. He didn't need to be reminded of that event.

"Wait, what about Ellis Island?" Brian asks but before he can get an answer, Peter and Juliet stop walking.

Peter turns to Brian and grins. "You bring your apron? We're gonna take a little shortcut through the kitchen."


	3. We Came, We Saw, We Gotta Do This Again

**Hello everybody! I hope you're all doing well through this quarantine. It's spooky month so I got some motivation again to finish up this chapter and release it. I spent so long on this one, mainly cuz I just didn't like how it would turn out every time I thought it was done. I'm still not completely happy with this but you've all waited long enough and I wanted to publish something. So here it is. Chapter 3. I can't guarantee that the next chapter will be up faster. I get distracted by so many things. I'm not going to abandon this or anything but I'm still sorry about not updating as quickly as I should. Thank you for still supporting this story. I appreciate every single one of you.**

* * *

"The Alhambra should be right through here." Juliet said to Brian. Peter pushed open the door and the three entered the kitchen.

"Hello? Chef?" Peter called jokingly.

Juliet shakes her head as she chuckles. The trio enters the kitchen and Peter and Juliet shoot each other slightly worried glances when they see the huge mess.

"Whoa." Brian breathes out and Peter puts a hand on his shoulder.

"Okay, champion, you lead for a while." he says and Brian gulps but nods.

"So how's it feel to be the one getting slimed now?" Juliet asks Peter with a smirk.

He glared at her. "Shut it, Barlow. Not a word about that."

She stuck her hands up in mock defense and grinned at him. Suddenly, there's a loud crash ahead and they both quickly turn to see Brian frozen, his patrona wand tight in hands. In front of him were pots, pans, and shelves scattered on the floor, large splashes of dark slime on the walls.

"T-t-they…they moved on their own." Brian stutters and Peter sighs.

"Yeah, yeah that happens. Just don't touch the slime. It's slimy… and it's extremely dangerous." he says. Brian nods and the three of them push forwards. Juliet looks at the walls and finds knives stuck in it. She pulls one out and looks it over.

"Someone is definitely not happy." she muttered to Peter and he chuckles.

"Pretty evident of that."

They keep walking until a shelf in front of them shakes and knocks all the pots and pans off, the shelf falling as well and breaking apart.

Peter jumps at the sudden noise and grumbles when Juliet laughs.

"You'd think I'd be used to that stuff by now!" he says, running a hand through his hair. Juliet nudges him.

"Don't worry, Pete, I'll protect you." she says to him and he rolls his eyes.

Not even a second after, the stovetops burst to life, the shelves next to it falling to the ground and blocking their path. Juliet jumps this time and grabs Peter's arm.

He looks down at her, gives her his best shit-eating grin and she glares at him.

"What was that about protecting me?" he says and she punches his shoulder.

"Shut up." she snaps and Peter laughs. He goes over to Brian and gives him a shrug.

"Nothing to worry about. Most kitchens have self-starting pilot lights." Peter says and Brian gives him a look, clearly not amused.

"Alright, tough crowd." he mutters and the three of them go around the tables in the room to the next door. It bursts open before they can open it themselves.

The three of them look at each other and share a nod, getting their blasters ready. They walk in and look around. The room was quiet for a split second before their path to the ballroom was blocked and the ghost of a large, burly man rose up from the other side of the room. It grins maliciously at them and rings a silver triangle. The three Ghostbusters only got a second to get ready before it started to throw dead fish at them, the skeletons seeming to come to life on their own.

They start blasting wildly to avoid getting hit and to hit the direct source, a mixture of defense and offense.

"Okay, I dare ya!" Peter grunted as he ducked his head, barely missing getting hit. He straightened and brushed his shoulder. "Everything but the kitchen sink."

They continued to blast their proton streams until the last fish skeleton was lying on the ground. Peter gave one of them a small kick with a grossed out look on his face.

"Ugh, this is why I eat out of a can." he mutters and Juliet chuckles.

"I highly doubt that's any better than this." she says.

"Hey, nothing out of a can has tried to kill me so I'm sticking with that."

Brian tried to push the large metal cart out of the walkway but Juliet put a hand on his shoulder.

"You don't gotta do that," she said and pointed to his patrona wand. "You just gotta flip this little red switch and use the capture stream."

He nods and flips it. "Uh, now what?"

"You blast it out of the way," Peter says fixing his hair which was now a complete mess. "That's all there is to it. You just throw this junk anywhere."

"Really?" he says, a grin growing on his lips.

"We don't exactly stick around and clean up," Peter says and shrugs. "It's easier to just blast shit out of the way.

Brian lets himself grin for the first time since getting to the hotel and blasts at the metal cart, knocking it out of their way.

"Not bad, kid." Juliet says and gives him a small pat on the back. With the path clear, they finally make it to the ballroom, the three of them charging up their blasters and moving their gazes around the room quickly.

"You know, I thought that guy said 'Rodriguez Bar Mitzvah'." he mutters to Juliet, making her snort. They both cringe as they watch Slimer fly around the room and then dives for the large cake on one of the tables.

"Ugh, would it kill him to mix in a green salad once in a while?" he says with a frown.

Brian raises his blaster and looks over at Peter for guidance. He only shrugs his shoulders.

"We're, uh, gonna take backup." he told him. Juliet did a double-take in Peter's direction. Peter, ignoring that, continued. "Just blast him until he's dazed and then throw a capture stream on him."

"Pete, you sure he can handle it?" Juliet asked him, quietly enough so that Brian didn't hear. Peter shrugged again and smirked.

"He'll be fine. We caught this spud on our first night." he said as he looked back up towards the rookie who was currently shooting wildly at Slimer. He cupped a hand and called over to him.

"Good, good! That's it, buddy. You've got the little monster breathing hard." he grinned. Juliet sighed as she saw Brian struggling and stepped forwards, letting loose her own proton stream. Together they managed to corner Slimer into the position for them to grab him and Peter cheered behind them.

"Got him! Now try to hold him still - you gotta wear him down," he yelled over the noise from the streams and Slimer's struggling. "When he's tired, we can put his sorry crater of a butt into a trap."

"You know, Venkman." Juliet says with a grunt as she and Brian continue to hold Slimer in place. "Instead of running your mouth, maybe now would be a good time to throw down that trap!"

"Okay, okay, geez," he muttered as he unhooked a trap from his belt and tossed it unceremoniously down under the green ghost. "Just trying to give some moral support."

With that, the trap opens and Slimer is sucked down into the bright light of the trap. Brian and Juliet turn off their proton streams and try to catch their breath as Peter simply waltzes up to the smoking trap and grins.

"That'll teach that pitiful goop sack to slime Pete Venkman," he says. He looks up when he hears Juliet clear her throat and sends her a sheepish smile. "And, by extension… you guys."

The three of them finally get a look at the damage done and they wince.

"Perhaps a place setting disturbed. Still pretty much ready." Juliet said with a breathy laugh. The entire ballroom was a mess. Tables and chairs were strewn everywhere and the walls around the place were covered in scorch marks and slime.

"Full go for the Rodriguez blowout." Peter added before the hotel manager comes bursting into the room.

"The Alhambra Ballroom! The Bar Mitzvah! What have you done? The guests are arriving in fifteen minutes!" he yells, looking like he might pass out right then and there.

Peter clears his throat and winks over to Juliet and Brian.

"What seems to be your problem?" Peter starts. "Thanks to us and our new exclusively assigned recruit here, the festivities can now proceed in an entirely ghost-free environment, so you're welcome." Peter puts one arm around Brian and nods to Juliet to leave but stops in his tracks.

"Oh, and to the Rodriguez family: L'chaim from the Ghostbusters!"

Satisfied that he sounded cool enough, the three of them exit the ballroom.

As if on cue, they see Ray shooting at several ghosts from the safety of a hallway. He glances behind him and smirks when he sees the three of them run up to him.

"Nice of you guys to join us. You grab the little spud?" he asks and Peter rolls his eyes.

"Ray, we need to have a heart-to-blob talk with this one, or we are gonna have discipline issues when he's a teenager." he tells him, only half-joking.

Ray only nods at him as he turns back around to shoot at the many bellhop ghosts flying around the lobby. "Well, uh, we can discuss parenting opinions later. How about you three give me and Spengler a hand here. They are a really persistent bunch!"

The five of them get to work on getting all the ghosts, Brian finally feeling like he's gotten the hang of the job. It wasn't so hard once you got used to the constant fatigue and potential death the others were shooting from their packs. He grunted as he wrangled up the last ghost into one of the traps laid on the ground and he wiped his brow with a grin.

Ray put a hand on his shoulder and grinned at him. "See? That wasn't such a chore now was it?"

The other three scoff, as if they had already heard him say that before and Ray sends them a glare.

Once again, the hotel manager comes running into the area and practically rips out what little hair he has left on his head.

"Who's going to pay for all this?!" he screams and Ray puts his hands up to try and calm him.

"No need to worry, sir. As you know, the Mayor rode to office on a strictly pro-Ghostbusters platform, and we now invoice the city directly for all captures and eliminations. An unhaunted New York is a tourist-friendly New York." He rattled on and Peter pinched the bridge of his nose. Ray could be so dense sometimes.

The manager sighed in frustration. "No...I meant the damage."

Ray muttered an "oh" and Egon spoke up instead.

"The Mayor and city have taken out an extensive insurance policy as well so you're covered."

"Honestly, I'm sensing some hostility here," Peter mutters. "Perhaps we should just leave the ghosts here if that's what you would prefer, sir."

"No!" the manager yells out, panicked. He calms down and continues. "No. But please, be discreet."

Juliet smirks. "Discretion is our professional watchword."

Suddenly a ghost zooms past above their heads and the five of them duck before it can hit them.

Ray stares after it, his eyes wide. "Whoa! Where did HE come from?!"

Egon fixes his glasses. "I suppose we should go after him." he raises an eyebrow as he looks over to Ray. "Unless you want to discuss it first?"

Ray only rolls his eyes in response and looks over to Brian.

"Alright, cadet. Go with Dr. Spengler. Shouldn't be too difficult."

Brian nods as he hurries after Egon up the stairs and Juliet looks over to Ray.

"You sure they'll be okay?" she asks, her voice hinting worry.

Peter chuckles. "What's wrong, Barlow? Already got attached to the new kid?"

Ray glances up from his PKE reader in his hand at the comment but doesn't say anything. He sees Juliet glare at Peter and scoff.

"No, I just don't want him to possibly die. He has potential. Besides, Egon could get hurt too."

"Juliet, they'll be fine." Ray finally speaks up and she looks over to him, a bit surprised by the slight stern tone she heard in his voice. Before she could say anything else, they heard a loud crash and a crackle in their radios.

Without another word or glance, the three of them run over to the stairs. They don't get any more than a few steps up before a wave of water rushes down the stairs. They give each other confused looks and Ray grabs his radio, careful not to drop it in the water that was now up to their shins.

"Hey, uh, Spengs! Is there a bathtub overflowing up there?" he asks and Egon responds with a slight crackle from the radio.

"More specifically: a 7000-cubic meter bathtub filled with protonically charged seawater. And, um, sea cucumbers?"

"Oh great, now we have to worry about the plumbing too." Peter mutters but they hurry up the stairs regardless and eventually meet up with Egon.

"Egon! You're okay!" Juliet wraps him in a hug and he chuckles.

"I have fast reflexes." he says and she lets him go, glancing behind him.

"Uh, where's the rookie?" she asks and he looks up the flights of stairs.

"We ran into a problem." he looks over to Ray, who was waving his PKE reader above the water. "Did you tell the recruit about semi-dimensional rift entities?"

Ray looks over to him and shakes his head. "Didn't have the time. Why? Do you think this could be something like that?"

"Well, the ghost was able to summon a tidal wave and practically turned this stairway into a coral reef. This type of highly agitated environment is a likely manifestation point." Egon finishes, removing his glasses to clean them and puts them back onto his face.

They hear blasting and loud, booming laughter from a couple of floors above them. The other three begin to race up the stairs but Egon stops them.

"Wait! Part of the stairs is completely destroyed. We can't get past it."

"How are we supposed to get up there?" Peter asks and right on time, all the water drains out from under their feet as the elevator dings open.

Juliet grins. "Going up?"

* * *

He wasn't going to get paid enough for this job. Brian didn't even know how much his salary was yet and he already knew it wasn't enough for what he was going through right now. He narrowly ducks his head down, avoiding a large table thrown at him by the pirate. Captain? Ghost pirate captain?

Brian shook his head. He needed to focus. He needed to- wait, it was quiet. He looked around and found no track of the maniacal ghost. Maybe it just went away on its own. Wishful thinking but hey, can't blame a guy for hoping.

Right when he was about to radio the others, Ray kicks open the doors to the restaurant in a very dramatic fashion and he lets out a sigh of relief.

Egon is the first to speak when the four of them walk in. "Good work. Are you alright?"

Brian nods at him and Ray gives him a pat on the back. "Nice going, kid. You might really be the right person for this job."

Peter looks around the room as he glances over to the rookie with a small smile. "Yes, you have destroyed a significant section of a five-star New York hotel in just under three hours." he looks over to the others and grins. "You're mother and I are so proud. Aren't we, Egon?"

Egon ignores him as he grabs his blaster, his eyes glued to his PKE reader. "I've got something! Let's track it down!"

Suddenly, a large explosion rocks the restaurant, and through the kitchen doors comes a large golem made up of different appliances and utensils.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me." Juliet mutters as she and Brian jump out of the way of a table thrown their way.

Peter, Ray, and Egon give each other a shocked look for a split second and they start blasting at the large creature

As the five of them blast at it, Peter turns to his partners and yells over the noise of the proton streams.

"Egon? Ray? This is something new for us, isn't it?" his voice cracks slightly from the shock of what he's seeing.

"First one I've ever seen!" Ray responds back, narrowly missing getting hit with a chair thrown his way. "It's some type of highly focused anthropomorphic animator, an entity which attracts familiar objects to itself so it can materially manifest its rage!"

"It's generating a field of attraction so strong that it's able to reassemble its component parts!" Egon adds in frustration as the proton streams seem to be making little damage.

The five of them continue to blast the creature as it begins to show signs of slowing down. Brian notices an opening within all the appliances the ghost has on top of it and manages to grab on to it. He begins to pull, making sure not to trip on his feet and mess up as the others continue to weaken it. Finally, he wrangles the ghost out from all the metal and steel and Juliet throws down a trap and in the blink of an eye, the trap is closed with the ghost sealed inside.

The group stands around for a few seconds, trying to catch their breaths. Peter raises a hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead.

"I thought I didn't like knives and forks flying at me," he says, still sounding very out of breath. "But, when knives and forks become a big angry giant, that's really me not liking it. A lot."

Ray grins at him. "Happens every day, right?"

Egon lets out a chuckle and he goes over to grab the trap on the floor. "This one should be a very interesting study."

Juliet finally lets go of some of the tension in her shoulders as she tries pointlessly to smooth out some of the wrinkles in her jumpsuit. "Anybody hear from Winston?"

Before anyone could answer, there was a loud rumble from outside the hotel and they all froze. Juliet's radio crackles to life and they hear Winston's voice come out of it.

"Uh, guys? I'm right outside." There's a slight pause and then he continues. "And so is something else."

Peter reaches for his own radio and speaks into it. "Gosh, we've missed you, partner. Glad you could make it. But first, how was Aida? We had to make do with, uh, this new specimen here."

Winston replies back, panic and frustration very clear in his voice, even through the radio. "I've been trying to get here for over four hours, Peter! Traffic is a little blocked right now!"

They hear more and more noise from outside, including a very loud and heavy thudding sound.

Ray pales slightly. "Wait...I know that thud…"

Egon, now fully panicked, grabs the radio from Peter's hand and speaks into it. "Winston, what do you see out there?"

"It's big, it's clean and soft and white. And you aren't gonna like it." he answers and the group rushes to the windows.

"No...this isn't possible. Not here. Not now. Not again." Ray whimpers.

They quickly rush downstairs and exit the hotel. Outside, the streets are filled with deserted cars, and the ground rumbles beneath their feet. Peter glances over to Ray, who stood frozen in shock and fear. He gives him a pat on the shoulder and Ray only turns to him for a split second before turning to see the familiar sight of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

The once cheerful mascot thunders over to a tall building in front of it and swipes a large hand across it, sending chunks of debris flying into the air and falling to the ground, crushing some of the cars unfortunate to be left there.

Ray walks over to Egon, who stood gaping at his PKE reader.

"It wasn't me this time," he says with a gulp. "I swear it."

Egon can only give him a small glance.

Brian turned to Juliet, his mouth still agape. He wanted to say something but his mouth couldn't form any words to correctly describe what he was feeling.

Juliet sighed. "Not again."

She was really starting to get tired of this sudden trip down memory lane.


End file.
